Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
October 4, 2014

Director and co-founder of the centre Yvonne Spencer
The economic climate has affected the number of people seeking assistance for children with dyslexia.This is according to director and co-founder of the Caribbean Dyslexia Centre Yvonne Spencer, who said, however, that while there has been a decline in that area, the number of scholarships has remained consistent over the past five years with some 14 children currently benefitting.Spencer made the disclosure today as the centre hosted an open day to celebrate its 20th anniversary.The director said the agency, which caters to children as young as four and a half years old to adults, has had a 100 perVolunteer Gloria Crookes took a little time out to interact with a 9-year-old boy, who was playing a maths game.cent success rate.
“It works. Some children can master it in a short space of time, some children take longer. It’s not a quick fix. Any child who comes here has success because once they have come and they are taught by our tutors, they always improve,” she said.One hundred per cent of the children who seek assistance have reading problems, with a small percentage having challenges with maths, Spencer explained.
“What we have found is that a lot of children do not have foundation alphabetical skills. This means that a lot of them don’t know their letter formations or their letter sounds. A lot of them haven’t been taught that the alphabet, which has 26 letters, has 44 sounds and my feeling is because the children don’t now this, reading and spelling have become more difficult,” the director added.